First off (I'm posting this to everyone): Note that the scores might be a bit lower than what's typical for NG reviews - no one should expect a 10/10 unless their entry was absolutely incredible.
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The pretty, but oh so cliched minor key piano intro left me anxious for what I was about to spend my next 6 minutes listening to. Would this be another tiring excercise in the sidechained bass and Fruity Loopy supersaw presets that we're all so familiar with on Newgrounds? Or maybe this one is different? And I have to admit, when you added the rhythmic electro synth in there, I was almost about to let out a sigh.
So you can imagine the relief it was to hear a nicely rounded set of tight, smacking kick and snare (I apologize for how almost sexual that sounded) that did NOT play out a standard 4x4 house beat. A square wave-like lead synth is also introduced at this moment, with some really nice playful portamento. Unfortunately I'm having trouble hanging onto any sort of recurring theme in its melody - for the most part, each bar has its own melodic idea that doesn't have much to do with any of the other ones. This makes it really hard for me as a listener to get engaged, because I never feel "okay, I'm with you: I think I've figured it out now, and I have some sense of what's to come next". For the same reason, you can't really surprise the listener by playing with their expectations either.
That changes quite a bit when the piano gets back in the limelight around 1:48 - where the rhythm and direction of the piano's melody is very clear. The diminished chord arpeggio that occasionally (and very unexpectedly) popped up impressed me. The heavily reverbed piano sound is still pretty, but unfortunately it sounds very little like an actual, played piano. I think whatever piano sound you're using is fine, but the midi sequencing could need some work. There are three things I can think of that would immediately improve the realism: 1. vary the velocity (not just randomly, think "if I was a pianist playing this part, where would I press the keys down hard for impact, and where would I hold back and keep it subtle?"). At the moment it sounds like each note is played at the same (rather high) velocity. 2. Humanize the timing. Straight, quantized notes sound like robot and the best sample library in the world will not help with that. If you can, try to rerecord some of the easier parts, but don't quantize it (or quantize it by 50% or something). 3. Add some playful, faster runs or something that isn't quite confined to the 8th note grid that the arpeggio is playing in. Some 16th/32nd notes or triplets that played their own thing would really freshen the solo piano parts up.
And then the drums and electronic stuff is introduced back again and it sounds great - this is the only point where you might as well keep the rigid quantized piano, because the 4x4 beat and piano line up so perfectly and create a bit of a hypnotic rhythm. Only for a moment though - it's gone when you change the drum rhythm back to what is originally was. At this point it sounds like, well a mildly interesting piano-centric electronic song (the word mediocre comes to mind but it the word would be a bit too harsh). The wild synth arpeggio is kinda pretty, but really doesn't sound at home in this song - it sounds like it would be more effective if the BPM of the song was kicked up considerably, or with a busier mix.
The last minute and a half (which is a LOT of time that can potentially be spent on good stuff in a song) drags on a lot, with very little variation beyond a few extra notes on the piano here and there. The same instrumentation is kept throughout, and almost no bold or creative things are popping up apart from the diminished arpeggio I mentioned earlier. In general, the song doesn't have enough things happening in it to warrant it being 6 minutes long.
6 points for sounds and instrumentation.
5 points for composition and melody/harmony.
5 points for theme/originality/other things that might impress.
Overall impression: 6.0
